Jury can't decide who was at the wheel

Saturday

Only one juror was prepared to convict a man accused of causing a crash on Morse Road in 2008 that killed two women and pitted a son against his father.

Only one juror was prepared to convict a man accused of causing a crash on Morse Road in 2008 that killed two women and pitted a son against his father.

In the second aggravated-vehicular-homicide trial of Brian M. Green Jr., a jury decided yesterday that it could not reach a unanimous verdict. The case took place in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

Judge Daniel T. Hogan declared a mistrial. Green's first trial also resulted in a mistrial because of something blurted out from the witness stand that tainted the jury.

This time, jurors told a bailiff they voted 11-1 for acquittal.

"There was no conclusive evidence that put Brian Green Jr. in the driver's seat," jury foreman Mike Bateson said afterward, summing up the feelings of a majority of jurors. "I didn't believe a word the father said."

Green, 28, formerly of Nafzger Drive, did not testify in his trial. But he broke down in tears when his father, Brian M. Green Sr., 47, took the witness stand last week and said his son was behind the wheel that night.

The crash killed Nicollette Hymes, 18, of Blacklick, who was driving a BMW eastbound on Morse Road near I-270, and Kristen Pressel, 18, the back-seat passenger in the Thunderbird. Pressel was dating the younger Green.

The case has proved problematic for the prosecution because both men have accused each other of driving, and the rollover collision tumbled the unbelted occupants inside.

Assistant County Prosecutor Dan Cable has relied on eyewitnesses who said they saw the sandy-haired father on the passenger side just before the crash. Police found his blood on both airbags and samples of light-colored hair embedded in the windshield.

Defense attorneys Joseph Scott and Shannon Leis successfully poked holes in the police investigation and challenged the eyewitness testimony about the father's position inside the car. They confirmed that the police never had the hair analyzed to identify who it came from.

Bateson said jurors viewed photos of the wreckage and thought the blood pool could have been explained by the elder Green's final resting place in the car. But that didn't prove to them who was driving.

The father said he was too drunk to drive on Nov. 8, 2008, and gave the keys willingly to his son.

The father initially declined to cooperate with police once he learned his blood-alcohol content was 0.325 percent. An Ohio motorist is presumed to be drunk at 0.08 percent.

Columbus police concluded that Green Jr. was at fault. Witnesses said the younger man initiated a brief race with his brother, Brandon, who pulled up next to him in a Ford Mustang on Morse Road east of I-270 about 7 p.m.

After catching a red light at Morse and Cherry Bottom roads, the two cars sped off, Green Sr. testified. He said he yelled at both to stop.

The Thunderbird clipped another car in the westbound lanes of Morse and went airborne into the eastbound lanes, colliding with the BMW.

Witnesses said they saw the father's head leaning out the passenger-side window of the Thunderbird and cursing at the Mustang's driver before the crash.

The younger Green had short black hair at the time.

"The police jumped to a conclusion within five or six hours, and that's sloppy police work," Scott told jurors. "The driving of that Thunderbird is surely consistent with a drunken driver."

Hogan said he would meet with the attorneys next week to discuss a new trial date. Meanwhile, Green Jr. was returned to the Franklin County jail.

bcadwallader@dispatch.com

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